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AMBROSE PHILIPS (c. 1675-1749)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 401 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AMBROSE See also:PHILIPS (c. 1675-1749)  , See also:English poet, was See also:born in See also:Shropshire of a See also:Leicestershire See also:family . He was educated at See also:Shrewsbury school and St See also:John's See also:College, See also:Cambridge, of which he became a See also:fellow in 1699 . He seems to have lived chiefly at Cambridge until he resigned his fellowship in 1708, and his pastorals probably belong to this See also:period . He worked for See also:Jacob See also:Tonson the bookseller, and his Pastorals opened the 6th See also:volume of Tonson's Miscellanies (1709), which also contained the pastorals of See also:Pope . See also:Philips was a stanch Whig, and a friend of See also:Steele and See also:Addison . In Nos . 22, 23, 30 and 32 (1713) of the See also:Guardian he was injudiciously praised as the only worthy successor of See also:Spenser . The writer of the papers, who is supposed to have been See also:Thomas See also:Tickell, pointedly ignored Pope's pastorals . In the Spectator Addison applauded him for his simplicity, and for having written English eclogues unencumbered by the machinery of classical See also:mythology . Pope's See also:jealousy was roused, and he sent an See also:anonymous contribution to the Guardian (No . 40) in which he See also:drew an ironical comparison between his own and See also:Philip's pastorals, censuring himself and praising Philips's worst passages . Philips is said to have threatened to See also:cane Pope with a See also:rod he kept hung up at See also:Button's See also:coffee-See also:house for the purpose .

It was at Pope's See also:

request that See also:Gay burlesqued Philips's pastorals in his Shepherd's See also:Week, but the See also:parody pleased by the very quality of simplicity which it was intended to ridicule . See also:Samuel See also:Johnson describes the relations between Pope and Philips as a " perpetual reciprocation of malevolence." Pope lost no opportunity of scoffing at Philips, who figured in the See also:Bathos and the Dunciad, as See also:Macer in the Characters; and in the " Instructions to a See also:porter how to find Mr See also:Curll's authors " he is a " Pindaric writer in red stockings." In 1718 he started a Whig See also:paper, The Freethinker, in See also:conjunction with See also:Hugh Boulter, then See also:vicar of St Olave's, See also:Southwark . He had been made See also:justice of the See also:peace for See also:Westminster, and in 1717 a See also:commissioner for the lottery, and when Boulter was made See also:archbishop of See also:Armagh, Philips accompanied him as secretary . He sat in the Irish See also:parliament for Co . Armagh, was secretary to the See also:lord See also:chancellor in 1726, and in 1733 became a See also:judge of the See also:prerogative See also:court . His See also:patron died in 1742, and six years later Philips returned to See also:London, where he died on the 18th of See also:June 1749 . His contemporary reputation rested on his pastorals and epistles, particularly the description of See also:winter addressed by him from See also:Copenhagen (1709) to the See also:earl of See also:Dorset . In T . H . See also:Ward's English Poets, however, he is represented by two of the See also:simple and charming pieces addressed to the See also:infant See also:children of Lord See also:Carteret and of See also:Daniel Pulteney . These were scoffed at by See also:Swift as " little flams on See also:Miss Carteret," and earned for Philips from See also:Henry See also:Carey the See also:nickname of " Namby-Pamby." Philips's See also:works are an abridgment of See also:Bishop See also:Hacket's See also:Life of John See also:Williams (1700); The Thousand and One Days; See also:Persian Tales . (1722), from the See also:French of F .

Potis de la Croix; three plays: The Distrest See also:

Mother (1712), an See also:adaptation of See also:Racine's Andromaque; The Briton (1722); Humfrey, See also:duke of See also:Gloucester (1723) . Many of his poems, which included some See also:translations from See also:Sappho, See also:Anacreon and See also:Pindar, were published separately, and a collected edition appeared in 1748 .

End of Article: AMBROSE PHILIPS (c. 1675-1749)
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